This invention relates to a control center composed of a number of sections that are placed side by side and are electrically connected by horizontal bus bars.
Control centers frequently are made up of a group of control center sections that are placed side by side. Each section contains one or more control units stacked one on top of the other. Electrical power is supplied to the control center by main horizontal bus bars which extend continuously across the upper portion of all of the individual sections. These horizontal bus bars deliver current from a source of supply to vertical bus bars located in each section. The vertical bus bars in turn deliver current to the individual control unit via a switch, circuit breaker, motor starter or other disconnect device, such as that described in Ser. No. 898,474, filed Aug. 20, 1986, entitled "Advanceable and Retractable Plug-on Unit Assembly for a Motor Control Center" by S. Ledbetter and R. Cox filed simultaneously herewith and herein incorporated by reference. Other aspects of the control center are more completely described in Ser. No. 898,178, entitled "Control Center Unit Shelf Assembly", filed Aug. 20, 1986, and Ser. No. 898,179, entitled "Control Unit Height Adapter", filed Aug. 20, 1986, both by H. W. Stanfield and R. VonRotz, also filed simultaneously herewith and incorporated by reference herein.
Shipping limitations prevent an entire control center from being shipped completely assembled. One, two or three control center sections are generally shipped together as a shipping split. The shipping splits are then placed side by side at the site and assembled as a complete control center.
In addition to connecting the frames of adjacent shipping splits, the main horizontal bus bars of the adjacent sections must be connected. In the prior art the horizontal bus bars of adjacent shipping splits were connected with splice plates that were supplied by the control center manufacturer. The bus bar splice plate and bolts or other connectors were shipped loose and were often lost or misplaced.
In the prior art there were also problems in making the splice connection because of the location of the horizontal bus bars in the back of the control center. The lack of space often required the removal of the top control unit, the structural members supporting the horizontal bus bar and/or other structural components prior to installing the splice plates. A customer who after installing the control center later desires to add sections to the control center will face considerable down time of the control center and considerable expense in connecting the horizontal bus bars of the existing control center to that of the new control center section.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a horizontal bus bar splice that is easily and quickly adapted to make the electrical connection between the horizontal bus bars of adjacent sections.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a horizontal bus bar splice that is self-contained within the bus bar assembly.
Further objects and features of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the specification and appended drawings illustrating certain preferred embodiments.